Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Searching for a Specific Field.

Searching for a Specific Field

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 12, 2023)

Other issues of WordTips have featured ways in which you can search for field codes, in general. You may be wondering how you can search for a specific type of field code. You can do it by following these steps:

Make sure field codes are showing in your document. If not, press Alt+F9 to display them.
Press Ctrl+F. Word displays the Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.

In the Find What box, type either ^d or ^19. This is the code to find the opening field brace.
Type a space followed by the field name.
If available, click the More button.
Make sure no formatting is being searched for, and that no other check boxes in the dialog box are selected.
Click on Find Next.

As an example, if you wanted to find a DATE field, after following steps 3 and 4, you would be searching for "^d DATE" (without the quote marks, of course).

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1652) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Searching for a Specific Field.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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